D - Jesus Changes Everything Pt. 3

Memory verse for this month:

Psalm 66:5 NIV

5 Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind!

Over the last 2 week we have seen how Jesus changes everything. We saw how Jesus changed Paul’s life and last week we saw how when Jesus begins to change your life, it causes you to change the way you have relationships with others.

This week, we’re going to see how Jesus changes your habits.

I mean, let’s face it: who here has bad habits?

I have some, I procrastinate so much. It was really rough when I was ins school, I would always wait until the last minute. Another one is that when I’m thinking really hard, I bite my tongue.

What are some bad habits you have? Maybe you bite your nails, or maybe instead of saying Wednesday, you say how you read it:

WED-NES-DAY

Maybe your bad habit is having a messy room or maybe your bad habit is ignoring your alarm clock. See, I have some of those bad habits I hope your don’t hear me trying to call you out because I promise i’m not.

But did you know, there is one bad habit we all have in common? We all do this same horrible habit and it’s called SIN.

See, bad habits don’t just affect you. I mean let’s say I have a bad habit of sleeping through my alarm. Yeah i might be late for work, but I’m also not the only person in my home. My wife would throw me out the window.

But that’s not it. let’s pretend I was the only one in my home and I slept through the alarm. The alarm itself may not affect anyone else, but if I’m late for work, that could affect my coworkers. Or if I’m late for school, it could hurt my grades and that affects other people down the line.

Sin unfortunately, functions in the same way. It hurts every person it comes into contacts with. Sure, sleeping through alarm clock is probably harmless for the most part, but sin isn’t.

Sin literally separates YOU from God.

We’ve been talking about on Sunday. God wants a relationship with you, but He can’t be in a relationship with you if you’d rather be in a relationship with sin.

so it begs the questions:

Do I need to stop sinning so that God can be in a relationship with me?

what do you think?

The answer is no, you don’t have to stop sinning in order to be in relationship with God, but if you continue to live your life as a sinner after you’ve decided to follow Jesus and you don’t listen to what the Bible says, then maybe you aren’t in a relationship with God.

Colossians 3:1–4 NIV

1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Colossians tells us:

Now that YOU are in relationship with GOD. Let’s think about God as much as we can. What are heavenly things? Let’s define it:

Heavenly things are the things Jesus has done that we can do too.

What are some of the things Jesus has done:

He walked on water. Healed the sick, feed more than 5000 people with 5 pieces of bread and 2 fish.

Can you do any of that? probably not, so Jesus says:

Look at those awesome things I did that you can’t do as proof that Jesus is God. But the other things you can do are:

Love your enemy. Pray. Read your Bible. Listen to sermons. Listen to the authority in your life. Don’t lie. Don’t cheat. Don’t bully. The list goes on and on and on.

Can we do those things? Absolutely we can. But see, the verse tells us to set our minds on heavenly things, not earthly things. What are earthly things?

Things that distract you from heavenly things.

What distracts you from reading your Bible? That one might hit someone upside the head. What distracts you from prayer? Sometimes it’s not even your devices, sometimes what prevents you from reading your bible or praying is a long day at school or a long day at work.

Guys, God’s days are way longer that ours. How do I know? The bible says that to God one day is like 1000 years and 1000 years is like one day. That’s a lot of time. God still has time to think about your, and to take care of you.

Colossians 3:3–4 NIV

3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Another thing we can do that Jesus did was die. See, you might be thinking to yourself, oh snap, I have to die? Maybe not physically, but you have to die to your sin. Every single day.

Let me ask you a question:

Is it fair to die for someone else’s sin?

Let’s say I robbed a bank, and then when it came down to it, someone else went to jail? Would that be fair? let me ask you one more question:

Is it fair to die for your own sin?

If I robbed a bank, would be OK if I went to jail for it? Absolutely it would. See, Jesus died on the cross for your sin and mine. He paid for our sins. All He asks from you is that you will give up your sin every single day. Now, someday you will absolutely fail.

Trust me, I do on a regular basis. But regardless of failing, if you follow Jesus you will want to let go of your bad habits. Ask Him to help you with that.